The invention relates to an assistance system for optimizing the operation of a self-propelled agricultural working machine.
Driver assistance systems are known. For example, German Patent Document DE 101 47 733 discloses a driver assistance system that supports the operator of an agricultural working machine in the optimization of the working parameters of the working parts. The driver assistance system comprises a complex display unit as well as an arithmetic logic unit for processing various sensor signals. The agricultural working machine, which is designed as a combine harvester, comprises a plurality of working parts, such as a header, a threshing mechanism, separating parts, and at least one cleaning mechanism, which are coupled to a plurality of sensing devices capable of detecting working parameters of the working parts as well as efficiency parameters of the agricultural working machine, such as grain loss, grain quality, and tailings quantity.
The information that is ascertainable by the sensing devices is forwarded to the central arithmetic logic unit, which derives information from these signals that can be visualized in the display unit. The visualized information comprises working parameters of the agricultural working machine, such as cylinder speed, cleaning fan speed, crop material throughput, and concave width, as well as efficiency parameters such as the grain losses of the cleaning and separating mechanisms. For the purpose of optimizing the various working parameters, German Patent document DE 101 47 733 proposes a method in which, in a first method step, the operator guides the agricultural working machine through the stand to be harvested at a ground speed that is appropriate for the expected crop throughput, thereby ensuring that the combine harvester is acted upon by an approximately consistent quantity of crop within a certain time period.
The operator must now wait until the combine harvester has reached a state of equilibrium in which an approximately consistent, good or poor working result is attained. This working result is recorded, and it is visualized to the operator in the display unit. If the working result is unsatisfactory, the operator of the combine harvester modifies a promising working parameter of a working part several times and, each time, waits for the combine harvester to reach a state of equilibrium with the modified working parameter. All the working result profiles are recorded, thereby allowing the operator to identify the specific value of the working parameter at which the best working result was attained. This specific value is then used to adjust the related working part, thereby ensuring that an improved working result of the agricultural working machine is ultimately attained.
A method of this type has a main disadvantage that a relatively long period of time must pass before the various working parameters of the combine harvester function within an optimized parameter range, since the disclosed adjustment procedure must be implemented for every working parameter. In addition, in the case of an adjustment method structured in this manner, rapid and successful optimization is decisively dependent upon the level of knowledge of the operator of the agricultural working machine, since the various working parameters influence one another via highly complex interactions.
European Patent document EP 2 220 926 discloses a driver assistance system that brings about an optimal adjustment of the working machine without the need for the operator of the working machine to intervene directly in the optimization process, yet that keeps the operator permanently informed of the optimization procedures being implemented. A driver assistance system structured in this manner makes it possible to quickly set optimal machine parameters, thereby ensuring that the efficiency parameters related to crop loss always move within an optimal range.
European Patent document EP 1 321 024 discloses a method for optimizing the operation of a self-propelled agricultural working machine that optimizes the efficiency parameters of the agricultural working machine and ascertains economic parameters of the agricultural working machine, such as fuel costs and the costs of grain losses, related to the on-going operation. Although such a system is capable of operating the agricultural working machine for defined machine parameters in a throughput range that has been optimized with respect to operating costs, such a method is not capable of optimizing the operation of the agricultural working machine depending on actual operating costs in such a way that the machine parameters are optimized depending on the operating costs.